That analogy doesn't hold up as well to tools. I mean we're still using E-mail right? Twitter is basically a format in its own right at this point

No it's not, and unlike email, it's a proprietary system under the control of a single company.

A format like Twitter requires major infrastructure to work well so being under one company makes complete and necessary sense. This doesn't detract from the fact that it's become a format that a lot of the Internet now depends on for communication and news. Simply saying "no, it's not" doesn't prove anything.

I don't see it so much as a tool as an experience. The twitter experience is almost always the same, which is why I got bored of it.

> What my vague acquaintance had for breakfast

> What my vague acquaintance had for breakfast

> What my vague acquaintance thinks about politics, which I need to grit my teeth and not reply to.

> Slightly amusing post from a well-known celebrity I follow, which someone will post on facebook later in the day anyway.

> Slightly amusing post from a well-known celebrity I quite deliberately don't follow, but which gets retweeted into my feed anyway.

> A politician I am starting to regret following wants my money.

> What some well-known celebrity I don't follow had for breakfast

Tools do something useful. Twitter doesn't -- at least, not for 95% of users.

>Remember when every man and his dog had a blog? (Or possibly a livejournal?) Remember when the word "blogosphere" was all over the news? What happened to all the blogs?

They became listservs. Ironic huh?